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The Driving Crooner

Rancid – Tomorrow Never Comes (Hellcat Records): Hard to believe this is the first full-length by the West Coast punk legends in six years, but maybe even harder to believe it’s their fifth in the 21st century, given how linked with the ’90s they are. Like most of their post-2000 output, you have a sharp collection of tuneful three-chord punk driven by the two punk lifers in Tim and Lars on guitars, infused with bass acrobatics from the underappreciated Matt Freeman. The album lacks the cohesiveness of those ’90s landmark albums but is enjoyable and tight. There are melodic guitar riffs and sing-alongs that harken back to …And Out Come the Wolves on some songs and bruising straightforward punk that reminds me of the 2000 s/t on others. Truth be told, they should employ a third party to sequence their albums for a better chance to release a modern banger. Rancid is one of my first favorite bands so I’ll always make time for them; others can’t, but if you’re intrigued by what this pillar of modern punk can still do, give them 29 minutes and possibly more.

Bill Orcutt – Jump On It (Palilalia Records): We have four seasons in Georgia so we have a lot of opportunities to listen to peaceful instrumental music outdoors. I’m likely not qualified to discuss Bill Orcutt’s new full-length, Jump On It, but this feels like evocative, spiriting acoustic guitar playing that would be nice to hear at sunrise over coffee at a lake house. I haven’t heard every album he’s done, and I know they’re not all this pleasant (I think he simultaneously has a new album of computerized women singing counting numbers). However, I respect the grind of an instrumentalist who puts out a DIY record every year and always want to put some shine on that. He’s surely got some new fans because of his recent, deserved appearance on NPR. Good for him. This will likely be a strong repeat listen throughout the year.

It’s the guns.

An inauspicious beginning to a new music blog, a week in which I didn’t feel up to listening to much music as I experienced that classic American event: losing a friend to gun violence. RIP, Amy.

That said, I want to spend as much time as I have on Earth learning and soaking in the beauty of art, whether it be music or film or visual. So we roll on. A band out of Ann Arbor/Detroit, XV, quietly dropped an album at the end of 2019 that was so unavailable, it garnered a lot of hype. This trio, borne of a scene that includes Tyvek and other Michigan heads, call themselves “free-punk,” and as much as I enjoy the outré (having spent this morning listening to Harry Pussy), that self-titled full-length didn’t grab me. And yet the new one, On The Creekbeds On The Thrones, is a really wonderful listen. Lots of different textural swaths including Velvet Underground guitar ambling, shouted phrases and dubby drum patterns. I am enjoying this turn toward more traditional form from minimalism and starkness.

Jerry Springer Requiem

Some music that I’ve loved, or at least thoughtfully considered, in recent times:

The Tubs – Dead Meat (Trouble in Mind Records): Early contender for me for Album of the Year. British singer affecting Richard Thompson stentorian voice belting for folk-tinged indie-pop of the New Zealand vintage like The Bats. The singer’s old band’s singer shows up for some vocal harmonies that made me wistful. I’ve heard people say this has moments of Hootie & the Blowfish, Gin Blossoms and Mumford & Sons; it absolutely does not, but if that gets you onboard, then give a listen.

The Casual Dots – Sanguine Truth (Ixor Stix Records): Wonderful two-guitar (bassless) interplay that brings to mind Sleater-Kinney with an almost doo-wop vocal vibe that gives it a timeless power. This was one of my top listens in 2022 and I can’t recommend enough. I missed their debut back in 2004 (!) and have become a big fan of that as well. Members of Bikini Kill and Slant 6, this is an essential listen for the quiet hours.

Mystic 100s fka Milk Music – On a Micro Diet (Online Ceramics): Cue “Deadhead” by The Teen Idles. These guys started a nu-grunge craze at the end of the ’00s that drove punks wild with fervor and over the years have morphed into some stoney-baloney hippie music that drives punks wild with hatred. I’m not here to say I like the Dead, because I don’t, but some of this is fine by me (and that’s not really their trip anyway). Boot up your vape and let the relaxed Neil-isms roll, creating some good vibes here, some good vibes there. A double album was not necessary, and as a result, a few of these songs are baaaad. But a few are good. Long live Mystic 100s (and the technology to make an album edit via playlist that cuts out a stinker of a track like “Drug Man”).

Connections – Cool Change (Trouble in Mind Records): Not dad-rock but likely dads who rock from Columbus, Ohio. They started banging out full-lengths in the mid-2010s that set my world on fire, namely for how effortlessly they mimicked Guided by Voices, but eventually settled into dwindling returns in my opinion. Private Airplane in particular got a lot of plays in a shabby apartment around the corner from what is now Krog St. Market that costs three times what it did then. First album in five years initially made no impression on me but is now starting to grow on me with humble melodies and spirited guitar flashes. I’m going to keep working on this one, you go back and familiarize yourself with the greatness of Private Airplane and Tough City and more.

Sweeping Promises put out a debut full-length, Hunger for a Way Out, at the beginning of the pandemic that really kept me going when the darkness felt enveloping. A lo-fi dance-punk blast that is still getting spins three years later. They eventually played my neighborhood when I was out of town, which is why I was glad to hear this morning they not only will play it again in August, they have a new album set to roll out in June, Good Living Is Coming For You. Check out the first single. Two people making a singular sound I am grateful to be here for and hearing.